Children waiting more than two years for tooth extractions

Children needing a general anaesthetic for tooth extraction are waiting nearly three years in a hidden crisis that is not recorded on national waiting lists.

A national report on hospital dentistry found there were more children on locally held waiting lists for assessment than on the nationally reported waiting list – 27,285 compared to 22,474.

Some of the longest waits are thought to be in Kent and Medway, where 200 children are waiting for dental extractions – many of them with autism or learning disabilities. The longest wait is 143 weeks — about two years and nine months.

The issue is going under the radar because there is a lack of a consistent dataset for community dental services, which are responsible for dentistry for children with special care needs, such as physical or learning disabilities.

Children with additional needs often can’t have teeth extracted under a local anaesthetic and instead need to be admitted to a hospital with a paediatric intensive care unit where they can have a general anaesthetic.

Being on a locally held waiting list – typically when a community dental service is not part of an acute trust – can mean commissioners are unaware of the scale of children waiting.

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Source: HSJ, 6 May 2025